“Twilight. To Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin, to His Village Zvanka” of Anna Bunina: The Reading Version (Article 3)

This final article offers an analytical reading of the last two stanzas of A. Bunina ʼs poem. It compares the idyllic portrayal of Zvanka in “Twilight”, which is localized by the mise-en-scène and the genre-specific “common places” in the chronotope and setting, with the discontinuous depiction of the idyllic life in G. Derzhavinʼs poem “Eugene. The Life of Zvanka”. The comparison, conducted with the use of both poetsʼ works, reveals the motivational and poetic similarities and differences between Buninaʼs visionary idyll and Derzhavinʼs country estate. Special attention is paid to the main character of the idyllic mise-en-scène, the poetʼs wife, who is idealized and mythologized by the author. In the context of Derzhavinʼs works and the biographical material of his contemporaries, the similarities and differences in her figurative presentation in Derzhavinʼs poem and Buninaʼs poem are determined. In the course of the text analysis and interpretation, the author of the article comes to the following conclusion: the praise of the inhabitants of Zvanka is conditioned by the target super-task of the poetic message – receiving an invitation to visit the estate, which can change the poetess’s life experience and female biography. Bunina ʼs unspoken desire explains the composition of the genre motifs (epistle, vision, complaint, etc.) and the evasive poetics of “Twilight” (strangeness, allusions and reminiscences, speech breaks and inserts, etc.). At the end of the article, the author concludes that A. Buninaʼs poem initiated the tradition of female ars poetica.